What is Geofencing?

Geofencing is a location-based marketing practice where a virtual perimeter is established around a physical geographical area in order to reach a targeted audience. When a portable device — such as a phone or tablet — enters this defined area, a variety of automated actions can be triggered, from push notifications to emails to security alerts. A geofencing radius adds value to communications by allowing you to deliver focused, location-specific messages to your target audience.

How Does Geofencing Work?

Geofencing capitalizes on now-widespread and standardized portable device features: cellular data services, GPS, and Wi-Fi data. Combined, these technologies deliver highly accurate information on the physical location of a mobile device. After your target audience opts-in (importantly, geofencing only occurs when a device user offers consent), they’ll receive a targeted message when they enter your defined area. The delivery method could be your dedicated company app, the recipient’s email, or it could merely reach your audience’s phone as a text message.

Advantages & Benefits of Geofencing

There are four main benefits of geofencing:

1. Increased Audience Engagement: People receive a constant barrage of messages. By delivering relevant and topical information, you better position your business to prove its relevance and value to your target audience.
2. Higher Return on Investment: Reaching your target audience costs time and money. Geofencing allows you to eliminate the resource-waste of “scatter-gun” communication. Moreover, geofenced messages make it easier for you to analyze customer response, so you can build on what works.
3. Improved Audience Relationship: Generic messages of questionable relevance can erode your reputation, particularly in marketing campaigns. Geographically appropriate content sidesteps the risk of being associated with unwelcome spam messages. Potential customers within a specified geofencing radius are more open to offers nearby.
4. Spreading brand awareness: By notifying the targeted audience with relevant alerts and nearby offers, you are increasing name recognition by getting them to think about your business.

Who Uses Geofencing?

Any business or organization whose core activities happen in a defined region can benefit from targeted geofencing. There are a host of useful applications, for example, for location-based marketing and communications with remote teams. The service may also be a powerful tool for community groups, schools, and any group serving a spatially-defined group of people.